The cause of a fire
which extensively damaged both a garage and a home in the 300 block of
Woodlawn Ave. late Thursday night is still under investigation, the Porter
Fire Department is reporting.

The house was
occupied at the time of the fire but the homeowner evacuated safely and no
one was injured, Fire Chief Jay Craig told the Chesterton Tribune
this morning.

The fire was
initially reported at 9:20 p.m. and on their arrival firefighters found the
garage at the rear of the home “three-quarters involved” and flames
extending onto and into the single-story home itself, which Craig said is
located approximately two feet from the garage.

Craig immediately
sent a crew inside the house to get a knock-down there, “as the garage was
already a visual total loss.” Firefighters then worked on the two blazes
simultaneously. Complicating the job was the construction of the house,
which at some point in the past received an addition with a second roof
built over the original one, forcing firefighters to remove portions of the
ceiling and a swath of siding to get at the blaze after it began burning
between the two roofs.

“We had to tear
into it to get at the hot spots,” Craig said. “There were some hard-to-reach
places.”

In the end
firefighters used some 10,000 to 15,000 gallons of water from a hydrant to
douse the fire. Assisting at the scene were the Chesterton, Burns Harbor,
Liberty Township, Beverly Shores, and Portage FDs, the Porter and Chesterton
police departments, and Porter Regional Hospital EMS.

The PFD has not yet
determined the cause of the fire but it appears to have started in the area
of the garage, Craig said. Damage to the home was chiefly contained to
smoke, water, and overhaul, and Craig believes most of the contents are
salvageable. He estimated total damage to garage and house at $75,000.